The invention relates to a process and composition for the protection of agricultural crops from the damaging effects of freezing temperatures, and more particularly to the use of a fermented cellulosic bio-mass for freeze protecting fruit and vegetables.
Cellulosic biomass is a complex mixture of carbohydrate polymers from plant cell walls known as cellulose and hemi-cellulose, plus lignin and a smaller amount of other compounds generally known as extractives. Several industries employ cellulosic biomass for the primary purpose of producing ethanol or ethanol enriched products. The production of ethanol fuels from corn, sugar cane and grains are examples of large scale industrial practices. The wine and beer industries also ferment cellulosic biomass for direct consumer consumption on a large scale.
To produce ethanol from biomass feedstocks, a pretreatment process is used to reduce the feedstock size, break down the hemi-cellulose to sugars, and open up the structure of the cellulose component. The cellulose portion is broken down or hydrolyzed by enzymes into glucose sugar that is fermented to ethanol. The sugars from the hemi-cellulose are also fermented to ethanol.
In practice, roughly two-thirds of each quantity of biomass can be converted to ethanol. The remaining by-product is a fermented biomass material. For grains, this spent biomass is sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cdistillers grain.xe2x80x9d This fermented biomass material can also be referred to as xe2x80x9cbottomsxe2x80x9d or raffinate and is typically either utilized as a livestock feed or discarded. Prior U.S. patents cite de-icing properties of fermented biomass. U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,812 to Janke et al. discloses a deicing composition made from cheese byproducts, for reducing the buildup of snow and ice on roads, bridges and other outdoor surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 5,635,101 to Janke et al. discloses a de-icing composition made from corn by-products, for reducing the buildup of snow and ice on roads, bridges and other surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,813 to Janke et al. discloses a deicing composition made from by-products of fruits and grains, for reducing the buildup of snow and ice on roads, bridges and other outdoor surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,918 to Toth et al. discloses an anti-freeze composition made from a waste product of the alcohol distilling industry, for making surfaces free of snow and ice. These prior patents attempt to provide effective compounds for de-icing but fail to teach any application beyond ice removal.
The present invention provides a process and composition for protecting an agricultural crop from freezing. The process of the invention comprises applying an effective amount of a freeze protection compound to the agricultural crop. This application is preferably performed by conventional sprayer techniques. The agricultural crop is broadly defined as a living and growing plant, raised for the production of a commodity. The commodity can be the entire plant or a portion of the plant.
The freeze protection compound includes a fermented biomass material as an active ingredient for the purpose of protecting the agricultural crop from freezing. The fermented biomass is mixed to form the freeze protection compound in a liquid solution containing a concentration of between about 10 volume percent to about 70 volume percent of the fermented biomass. More preferably, the fermented biomass is mixed to form a substantially aqueous solution containing a concentration of approximately 30 volume percent of the fermented biomass.
The fermented biomass can specifically be a fermented corn product. The preferred process of the invention includes rendering the fermented corn product substantially free of ethanol. The ethanol is typically the primary product of a distillation of the fermented biomass and the residual fermented biomass is considered a secondary product. The fermented biomass, substantially free from the ethanol, can then be employed as the agricultural freeze protection compound of the present invention.
A preferred application of the freeze protection compound is to the blooms and foliage of the agricultural crop, such as a tree cultivar. Most preferably such a tree cultivar includes all varieties of orchard and grove cultivated products. An effective amount of the freeze protection compound is applied to the living and growing foliage and can also as preferred be applied to the blooms or bloom sets.
For the present invention, the composition for the freeze protection of an agricultural crop can be alternatively be derived from any biomass material and can include corn, dairy products, viticultural byproducts or forest byproducts.